New Delhi: Coming down heavily on the Congress following cash seizure from the premises linked to party leader Dhiraj Prasad Sahu, the BJP said the grand old party has kept the tradition of corruption alive generation after generation, news agency PTI reported. A huge pile of cash was recovered from Odisha and Jharkhand after the Income Tax department raided the premises linked to Sahu. Around Rs 290 crore was seized, making it the "highest-ever" black money haul by any agency in a single operation, PTI quoted officials as saying.
“The cash seized from Sahu is the biggest haul of cash that has been seized from corrupt persons so far. This shows how the Congress has spread corruption generation after generation and the tradition of corruption has been kept alive. Rs 300 crore recovered from just one Congress leader and counting is still on. Imagine if all the corrupt leaders of Congress are kept together, how many notes will be recovered,” PTI quoted Union minister Meenakashi Lekhi as saying.
Claiming that Sahu was “quite close” to Rahul Gandhi, Lekhi further said she wondered as to how Sonia Gandhi allowed a person, who lost twice in Lok Sabha elections, to be elected to Rajya Sabha thrice.
“My question to Rahul is what was a person like him doing in your Bharat Jodo Yatra. He made him MP thrice. My question to Sonia Gandhi is how she allowed this person, who lost twice in Lok Sabha elections, to be elected to Rajya Sabha three times. Generation after generation the tradition of corruption has been kept alive. And when you see the Congress family tree, it seems like family tree has branches made of corruption,” PTI quoted the BJP leader as saying.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Manickam Tagore accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of engaging in “cheap politics” and questioned the linking of a business of the Sahu family with the Congress.
Taking to X, Tagore wrote, “Why Mr PM is doing this cheap politics linking a business of Sahu family with Congress? Some facts about Dheeraj Sahu. Sahu family has been in the country liquor business for 40 years. Dheeraj Prasad Sahu’s relatives have a big liquor business in Odisha. Baldev Sahu and Group of Companies is originally from Lohardaga district of Jharkhand. This company started making country liquor in Odisha 40 years ago. The company is a partnership firm of Buddhist Distillery Private Limited (BDPL). This company also has Baldev Sahu Infra Private Limited.”
On a photo shared by PM Modi on X about the cash seized, Tagore further wrote, “Now a Sahu who is into country liquor business got IT raid a business group had 200 crores cash they have to explain about the money. Why drag Congress into it? Why this cheap politics?”
Notably, PM Modi shared a screenshot on X of a media report on the I-T raids and wrote, “The countrymen should look at the pile of these notes and then listen to the honest 'speeches' of their leaders. Whatever has been looted from the public, every penny will have to be returned, this is Modi's guarantee.”